| Title: | Letter from Danville, Kentucky, to Lifford, Ireland. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3917 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | 1811-20/85 |
| Year | 1819 |
| Sender | unknown |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Danville, Kentucky, USA |
| Destination | Lifford, Co. Donegal, Ireland |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | son-father |
| Source | The Belfast Newsletter, 18th May 1819 |
| Archive | The Central Library, Belfast |
| Doc. No. | 9410149 |
| Date | 22/01/1819 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 10:10:1994. |
| Word Count | 415 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | EMIGRATION Extract of a letter from a young man at Danville, in the State of Kentucky, to his father in Lifford, dated January 22, 1819: - "The United States have lately bought from a nation of friendly Indians, called the Chocktaws and Cherokees a large tract of their country, about 250 miles west of this. This land has been lately sold .y [by?] to the highest bidders, in sections and quarter sections, at the different offices lately established in that country by the Government. "According to the report of the two treating plenipotentiaries in behalf of the United States, the Governor of this State (Kentucky) and Major-General Andrew Jackson, it is said to be the best land now in possession on the continent of America. This has caused such a spirit of emigration amongst the people of the eastern States, as to allow no peace of mind among them till they go and visit this new country; and numbers who have bought land there, have sold out, and are seen, since last autumn, daily passing through this town in crowds, with all their family and cattle, going to this place, called the Alabama territory; and even the people of this State (which about twenty years ago was considered the garden of America,) have become dissastisfied with their places, from the numbers they see pass to this new country, which but a little time ago was the home of the savage. In 1816, when I came to Danville, the same spirit agitated the people in moving to the Missouri country, until it became so thickly settled, as at this time to be admitted into the Union as a State. It is therefore to be no more called the territory, but the STATE of MISSOURI, the capital of which is St. Louis. Every territory must number so many million of souls before it can become a State, or have a voice in Congress. "Though my paper keeps me within narrow limits, I cannot but notice to you a calamity which prevails in this country at present, occasioned by as injudicious system of banking which the legislature of our State established here some time ago, by granting a charter to thirty-three banks, through a wish to promote the circulation of a paper currency, as silver was at that time very scarce. These banks all went into operation, and at this time few of them exist, as was anticipated by the people. Through bad management, and the issue of too much paper, they became insolvent, leaving in the hands of the most industrious merchants and farmers, large quantities of their notes, not worth one cent." |
